The Venice Beach Hostel - Youth hostel in Marina Del Rey - Washington Blvd, USA

Where to begin.. first of all, $40 per night in a shared room is daylight robbery! There is absolutely no value for money. I am happy to pay that if my space was clean, the doors were actually kept locked, there was a worker in the same building, if the beds were even the slightest bit comfortable and there were ladders to reach the top bunk? All of this was not the case at this hostel. Its split between two locations and the one we stayed was said to be ‘a boutique experience’ which was far from the truth. It was a dingy little apartment building above a shut down shop. It looked like it hasn’t been updated since the 60’s in the worst way possible and not cleaned properly since then too, oh and the mattresses never replaced. The windows were covered in bugs and a thick layer of dirt and the bathroom filled with mould. Every time we came in and out, the front door was left unlocked and wide open, not to mention our bedroom door also unlocked and open with not enough lockers for all people staying. We woke up to a random man standing in the middle of our room who we had never seen before. After complaining, it turned out to be a worker that was in no uniform/with no staff ID and didn’t even knock or attempt to introduce himself. The noise was unbearable! On the main road & windows always open with no curtains. There was one bathroom for 4 rooms which is unacceptable but ‘oh we were welcome to use the facilities at the other location’ 10min walk down the road… We expressed our disappointment to the staff about all of the above and they flat out refused to refund us, nor give us a private (lockable) room because ‘we had not paid for that room’. The offered us to move to the other location in a bigger shared dorm room with more people. We sadly had to choose to tough it out. All the staff member could do was make up excuses, back chat us and start talking about something irrelevant. I can see from previous reviews that the owner will snap back at any negative comments and i don’t doubt he will do the same to this. It just shows how immature and careless he is. if you get this far in reading the review spend an extra $10 and go stay somewhere else. I will absolutely never be returning to this hostel. You guys are not the lads…

This is the worst hostel I have ever stayed in. For $40 a night you get absolutely no value for money. Beds uncomfortable the whole place was dirty, it is a small dingy apartment above a closed down shop. Multiple times front door and room door were left wide open to the street. Mattresses uncomfortable and felt dirty. Woke up to a strange man stood in the room watching us sleep who we later found out was a staff member we had never been introduced to. We complained at the time but they refused a refund and offered no real solution. Do yourself a favour and do not stay here.

Booked a private room for just one night and luckily that was it! Once arrived in a very cosy building we were told we would have slept in the separate one 5 minutes away...which was a solid 10 minutes walk. Once arrived in this off site accommodation there was a random open luggage on the floor and the place did not look safe at all. I could not sleep throughout the night as you could hear everything, people stepping, bottles in the floor, people talking. I was there with my brother, I would have felt so unsafe should I have been on my own, there is no staff around and we were told we could have called if anything...I highly doubt someone would have come! Also, should you want to check out early not sure where you'd have left the keys

This place is absolutely HORRIFIC! Sheets seemed dirty, I had to use my own clothes to cover the bed. Beds are uncomfortable. Staff is extremely rude and standoffish. The whole vibe of the place was terrible. I would rather sleep on the street than to ever stay at this place again! They should be shut down!

Me and my friend came here last minute and we had a great two days. Owner is chill, location is perfect for people that don't mind a stroll. Definetly recommend it to people that dont expect a lot and love to connect.

Good ambience, quiet rooms even if we were 13 in my room, I could feel all the bed springs in my bed, but it was comfortable enough. The 2 beds move when someone turns around in bed.

Adding a “surprising charge” for card payment and a “dense” host is the best way to put it. Fees themselves seemed reasonable so I agreed and paid for it. But when I tell the host that they could update the fee’s info on the booking description to easily provide better experience, the host become mad immediately. When I try to ask the host that a fee also seems too high because card payment has been either 1~3% fee or a minimum purchase, the host started yelling “it is what it is” “I don’t welcome you” and asked me to leave and threatened to call police. I called the owner several times for a more timely resolution but no one answered. The host said he’s “exactly” the king of world and “police will help me”. The hostel feels unsafe to me so I cancelled reservation and left

Borderline unsafe ! I stayed here on a roadtrip and was put into their secondary location. It was our 4th California hostel and unfortunately the worst by far. Room was small but not too packed - mixed room with 4 men and myself. However, when we woke up early the next morning both the room door and front door were unlocked with no staff present in the hours we had stayed - with the hostel on a main street. We went to the main building to ask about this, and the owner was incredibly rude to my partner after he asked to move buildings as I felt unsafe. When I explained again how unsafe I felt he let us move and apologised "if" the door was unlocked but said this was unlikely. He then got borderline aggressive when I said it was. When we went back to get our stuff the doors were once again unlocked with no staff present. We stayed an additional night as there were no refunds with card payment but I would avoid - the staff were rude and very defensive. Would not recommend especially to solo or groups of female travelers. Positives of this place would be free parking and met some lovely travelers here who were open to chatting and making friends.